St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-13
IN PRISON CELLS.
Continued From First Page.


every city has its quota of this class of
young men, but New York city has a
quota large enough to furnish every city
in the land, from Maine to Georgia,
from Massachusetts to California.
Hanging is said to be not an unpleas-
ant death, but as / have never cOnverSed
with any one on whom the experiment
was successfully tried, l am unable to
give an opinion which can be quoted as
authority If the choking sensation eX-
perienced by a little trial is any evil
dence, am free to say prefer TO die
some other way. The commissions, the
cOntortiOnS, the extraordinary develop
ment of muscles and of fiber may be the
perfunctionary movements of an I'M
conscious body, but / doubt. 1t isn't
once in hundred times that mans
neck is broken by the shock. On the
contrary, every evidence goes to show
that the vast ma Ory of men and women
who are hanged die a lingering and
painful death by SutfOcatiOn and by
strangulatiOn. dare say that the eX-
perience of Mr.. Spies, from the moment
he dropped until his soul finally found
q place of exit, was of the most frightful
and fearful phantasmagOrialistic type.
He was nervOuSly-Ouilt man. a high
champagne when he went off. He
braced himself for the emergency and,
while he unquestiOnably felt degree
of physical fear, there was a mental
and moral dOminancy there which made
him supreme master of the occasion.
The rope was undoubtedly properly
put, in fact we all saw that it was, but
it will be remembered that after the
cap was pulled over his head the caps
were put over the heads of the others. 1t
Took Some Time
and it is a reasonable SuppOSitiOn that
he moved his head about in some way
or other and disturbed the position OF
the moose. for the moment he fall the
Moose slipped and the knot caught him
Immediately in the center of his
head. forcing his chin upon his chest
and. TO a certain extent, impeding the
choking process in his throat. Now it
goes without saying that in that position
it was exceedingly difficult for him to
breathe, but it was extremely hard work
to kill him. His chest heaved, his
limbs were drawn up, his arms gave
every evidence of desire to move. I
believe the man was conscious for many
minutes after he fell, and, if so, the
quantity of terror, the amount of phys
ical suffering, the wide-horiZoned plain
over which his mind ran-paSt, present,
future-whO of his fellOW-beingS can
eStimate-WhO can that frightful expert
ence eXaggerate? l have an idea that
there is better way for us to get rid of
our criminals than by the rope. An eye
for an eye, tooth for tooth, a life for
life, believe in. That part of scrip
ture has my heartieSt and sincereSt and
most unfeigned Endorsement. If torture
is what we wish. then hang, but if pun
ishment and satisfaction are what are
sought then it should be the guilOtine or
the garrOte. l
Take No Stock
in the prating about trying to kill by
electricity. On whom are you going to
practice? You have no right to practice
on dogs, you have no right to vivisect
horses, you have no right to eXperiement
on cattle, and no criminal is far enough
down the depth of degradation
to warrant his being tempered with
along the line of torture. The
garrOte we know; the guillOtine we
know. The former is clean and neat
and expeditions. The latter is expedi-
tiOuS enough. but dirty, disgusting and
full of horrible surroundings. This
subject must come up. Like BanquO'S
ghost, it will not down, and sooner or
later the civilization of the age will de-
mand that our authorities change this
relic of barb arism. not in the interest of
criminals, not in the interest of law,
but in the interest of humanity: first,
that the effect of life for a life shall
be untempered, and second, that we
shall be able to vindicate justice and
vindicate the righteousness of our laws,
but do so decently and in order.
JOE HOWARD, JR.